1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a structure and method for clamping a built-in component in a resin-made hollow container such as a vehicle fuel tank.
2. Description of the Invention
A vehicle fuel tank includes various built-in components associated with the tank such as a valve, a pump, and a tube. For securing such built-in components to an inner wall of the tank body, it is preferable to secure them during a step of manufacturing the tank body rather than after completion of the tank body when considering the labor involved in operations for incorporating the built-in components into the completed tank body.
Examples of conventional methods of securing such components in a tank during manufacture of the tank include a method disclosed in JP 2009-542480. JP 2009-542480 describes a technique of securing a pair of support members respectively against inner walls of parisons (two shells) transferred onto mold pieces, by means of an air cylinder; causing the support members to respectively hold ducts that have a connector plug portion and a connector socket portion, respectively; and coupling the connector plug portion and the connector socket portion to each other when closing the mold pieces and thereby connecting the ducts to each other for communication.
In the technique of JP 2009-542480, when the ducts are properly put into communication, it is considered that the ducts are stably secured to the tank by being supported by the pair of support members. However, when an axial displacement of the ducts occurs during the connection thereof, the connector plug portion and the connector socket portion collide with each other. As a result, the ducts might drop from the support members without the communication established between the ducts.
The present invention has been made to solve the above drawback. It is an object of the present invention to provide a structure and method for stably securing a built-in component such as a duct in a hollow container such as a fuel tank.